How burn survivor Shalom Blac inspires us to look beyond our physical appearance

At age nine, Shalom Blac and her little sister became burn victims and their lives have never been the same since that day. At the time of the incident, they were in Nigeria and decided to take a nap under a table in their mother’s restaurant. Unknown to their mother, she placed a pot of hot oil on the table and someone tipped it over and literally everything poured on the girls.

“I remember just screaming and scraping my body, and my skin was literally falling on the floor,” Blac said.  “I remember my mom telling me that I fainted. She thought I was gone.”

They were taken to the hospital severely scalded. Their aunt later got them visas to the USA for them to undergo reconstructive surgeries.

Growing up with that many visible scars in a different country came with its own troubles. At a point, Shalom Blac (whose real name is Shalom Nchom) wanted to commit suicide because of all the bullying and taunts she was receiving but she pulled through.

“Kids that I used to play with, they were either scared of me or some would call me ‘monster’ and ‘two-face’ and just laugh. I started thinking about committing suicide because of the bullying.”

“I remember one day just taking a knife and going into the bathroom and looking at myself and wondering why people just don’t like me and why they see a monster.

“I just couldn’t imagine living my whole life being bullied every day, even just going out people just staring at me and just wondering “what the hell is wrong with her face?”‘

Now a YouTube sensation, Shalom Blac was not all that confident back then before she started posting videos online. She loved doing makeup as a child, playing with her mother’s makeup kits before her accident.

Whiles on admission at the hospital in the U.S., she was given lessons on how to properly wear makeup, but she still couldn’t get the hang of it well.

“They were teaching me how to do makeup even though I wasn’t good. I used to just have concealer all over my face and go to school. It was horrible.”

Her curiosity to better her makeup game made her look up more tutorials on YouTube and she found a video that spoke to her.

“That’s how I picked up on how to do a lot of different stuff. And I started applying that to how I want my makeup to look and how I want to look with makeup. ”

The YouTube sensation with 100,000 subscribers and more got inspired to start her own channel after watching a video of a young cancer patient doing her thing on camera. So Shalom Blac gathered all the courage she could and did what she loves doing the most on camera.

“I just decided to do a video and then post a picture of me without my wig, which was a big deal. I was so scared, but seeing people tell me how my picture or my videos have inspired them really pushed me to do more and share with people.”

Her transformation videos started going viral and with each post, she showed off her skills and beauty expertise and people loved it.

“I wanted to stop feeling sorry for myself. And I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me. I wanted to be happy.”

We thank God that she saw beyond her physical appearance and now appreciates herself more, inspiring all of us to look within ourselves and love people for who they are and not what they look like.

“At this point in my life I don’t regret what happened to me. I feel like this was my calling. If I had a choice, to take it back, I definitely wouldn’t because it’s helping other people.

“I’m just glad that my story can actually inspire someone enough for them to realize their life is worth living. I don’t feel different whether I have makeup or not. I’m very much in tune with my looks. I see beauty regardless.”